In The Colors of Space, young Bart Steele, Space Academy graduate, is
waiting in a spaceport for a ship to take him home when something
happens that suddenly thrusts him into the center of a quest for the
secret of interstellar travel. The method of faster than light travel,
called "warp drive" in later Sci-Fi stories, is a tightly kept secret of
an alien race known as the "Lhari." Some humans feel that they should
not have to depend on the Lhari to get to far away planets and enlist
Bart to help them wrest the secret from the Lhari by undertaking a
perilous mission. Bart's survival and the freedom of the human race
suddenly depend on his courage and wits.